A Study on Media Agendas and the Legislation Process: A Focus on the Law Makers (Updated)

DOI: 10.5176/2301-3729_JMComm12.104

Authors: Sophia Kang

Abstract:The following research was conducted to investigate the influence of the media on the legislation process. The study is based on the agenda setting theory of McCombs and Shaw. The research focuses on the effects of the media on individual legislators. Before the research results are introduced the researcher briefly explores the traditional agenda setting theory. The agenda setting theory hypothesized that the more the media covers a certain issue the more the public recognizes the issue as an important agenda. The introduction reviews the origin, development and basics of the agenda setting theory. It also introduces the empirical experiments of McCombs and Shaw. Their findings showed that the public was indeed influenced by media agendas. The main focus of the paper 'The Media and Lawmakers' is constituted of data gathered from surveys. The survey forms were sent to the three hundred National Assembly Members of Korea and forty-nine of them replied. They show that legislators hold some distinct characteristics that differ from the media use of the general public. The political party or color of the legislators strongly influenced their media use. Moreover media agendas were an important factor in their decision making in the legislation process. The media, its coverage and public agendas exerted a large influence in the legislation process of Korea. The lack of specimens for the survey limits the findings of this study. However the survey and the information gathered is applicable to many different spheres of study.